Past Activities

The workshop brings together two recent and exciting trends in robotics, namely, Soft Robotics and Morphological Computation. Both are expected to play an important role to bring about substantially novel approaches and application in robotics research. Toward high impact achievements, the main objectives of the workshop is to bring together the leading scientists of these two exciting research areas from all over the world, and to present the state-of-the-art work for mutual inspiration. Enjoy the pictures here!

Two sessions related to soft robotics were organized in BioRob 2012. This first session focused on soft robots as biologically inspired systems, modeling of soft robot, as well as soft robot locomotion and manipulation. The second session focused on smart materials and actuators for soft robotics. Organizers: Cecilia Laschi and Barbara Mazzolai.

The second session in BioRob 2012 focused on smart materials and actuators for soft robotics, including its application for locomotion and manipulation. Organizers: Matteo Cianchetti and Virgilio Mattoli.

This summer school gives an introduction into current issues and techniques in soft robotics research. More specifically, the lectures included mechanical fundamentals for soft robotics, modeling and simulation of soft bodies, soft actuators and deformable sensors and physical human robot interaction.

Special issue on “Soft Robotics” in Journal of Advanced Robotics 26(7), 2012

This special issue characterized the state of the art of soft robotics research. The topics covered included motion control in soft robots, control of continuum soft body, control challenge of flexible musculoskeletal body structures of robots, component technologies for soft robotics, and stiffness control for human robot interaction. Guest co-editors: Fumiya Iida, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Rolf Pfeifer and Koh Hosoda.

This session discussed how soft robotics had been developed in the last decade and what progress had been made. The topics included the use of soft and deformable materials, dynamic changes of morphology, and sensory motor control for gentle system environment interactions. Session organizer: Fumiya Iida.

Swiss-Japan Joint Seminar on “Soft Robotics: Morphology, materials, and functionalities”, University of Tokyo, June 20-23, 2010

The goal of this seminar was to bring together the leading scientists of soft robotics research in Switzerland and Japan, and to discuss strategic research collaborations. The seminar was attended by seven Swiss participants and twenty two Japanese participants, consisting of faculty members, young researchers and senior students.